The Outside Seat Podcast Tue, 14 Jul 2026 02:00:01 -0400 http://theoutsideseat.com en-gb © 2026 The Outside Seat Podcast yes 951b2a34-190e-5b0e-aa2e-3d8225737486 Mike Tumalty episodic false The Outside Seat is a B2B revenue leadership podcast hosted by Mike Tumalty, featuring unfiltered conversations with CROs, VP Sales, PE operators, and the practitioners who actually run the commercial engine. No scripts. No sanitised answers. Just the conversations your buyers never have with you.

]]> Buzzsprout (https://www.buzzsprout.com) B2B sales, GTM, sales leadership, CRO, revenue operations, sales enablement, B2B SaaS, buyer experience, Mike Tumalty, business podcast, revenue growth, go-to-market Mike Tumalty https://storage.buzzsprout.com/ww2ttxkp3c9iflbj9x6javo8zs1v?.jpg The Outside Seat Podcast http://theoutsideseat.com Mike Tumalty If AI Can Replace Your CSM, They Were Never a Good CSM | Revital Guetta, Customer Success & Growth If AI Can Replace Your CSM, They Were Never a Good CSM | Revital Guetta, Customer Success & Growth Revital Guetta has spent more than 22 years in post-sale, customer-facing organisations, from support through to Chief Customer Officer. She now advises companies on CS strategy and growth as an independent consultant.

In this conversation, Mike and Revital go deep on what genuinely great Customer Success looks like when it is built as a revenue function rather than a support function, how the function has evolved from GRR to NRR accountability, and what the best CSMs do that no AI model can replicate.

What is covered:

  • How CS evolved from reactive support to active revenue contributor, and what that means for hiring
  • Why the CSM skill set is not a single profile, and how hiring strategy has to match the product and the customer
  • The commercial cost of treating CS as a support function, and what it takes to shift leadership thinking
  • Overselling as one of the most predictive indicators of churn, and how to catch it before it damages the relationship
  • What AI genuinely adds to a CS operation, and what it cannot replace
  • Why cutting CS headcount in exchange for AI tools is the wrong calculation
  • The handoff between sales and CS, and why embedding a CSM in the late stages of an enterprise deal matters
  • The pandemic licensing decision that cost nothing and returned revenue


About Revital Guetta

Revital Guetta is a Customer Success and Growth Advisor based in Israel, with over 22 years of experience in post-sale, customer-facing roles spanning support, CS, customer marketing, customer education, and CCO-level commercial leadership. She has worked across SMB and enterprise, in both early-stage and scaling businesses. She now works independently, advising organisations on CS strategy, growth, and the gap between commercial intent and operational execution.

Links

The Outside Seat is a B2B revenue leadership podcast hosted by Mike Tumalty. New episodes every week.

Episode 7 is supported by Flourish, an early-career B2B sales recruitment and training business. If you are hiring sales talent, look at what they do: https://info.helloflourish.com/hire-a-sales-exec/

InsideNow: GTM diagnostics and commercial due diligence for B2B SaaS. insidenow.io

]]> Revital Guetta has spent more than 22 years in post-sale, customer-facing organisations, from support through to Chief Customer Officer. She now advises companies on CS strategy and growth as an independent consultant.

In this conversation, Mike and Revital go deep on what genuinely great Customer Success looks like when it is built as a revenue function rather than a support function, how the function has evolved from GRR to NRR accountability, and what the best CSMs do that no AI model can replicate.

What is covered:

  • How CS evolved from reactive support to active revenue contributor, and what that means for hiring
  • Why the CSM skill set is not a single profile, and how hiring strategy has to match the product and the customer
  • The commercial cost of treating CS as a support function, and what it takes to shift leadership thinking
  • Overselling as one of the most predictive indicators of churn, and how to catch it before it damages the relationship
  • What AI genuinely adds to a CS operation, and what it cannot replace
  • Why cutting CS headcount in exchange for AI tools is the wrong calculation
  • The handoff between sales and CS, and why embedding a CSM in the late stages of an enterprise deal matters
  • The pandemic licensing decision that cost nothing and returned revenue


About Revital Guetta

Revital Guetta is a Customer Success and Growth Advisor based in Israel, with over 22 years of experience in post-sale, customer-facing roles spanning support, CS, customer marketing, customer education, and CCO-level commercial leadership. She has worked across SMB and enterprise, in both early-stage and scaling businesses. She now works independently, advising organisations on CS strategy, growth, and the gap between commercial intent and operational execution.

Links

The Outside Seat is a B2B revenue leadership podcast hosted by Mike Tumalty. New episodes every week.

Episode 7 is supported by Flourish, an early-career B2B sales recruitment and training business. If you are hiring sales talent, look at what they do: https://info.helloflourish.com/hire-a-sales-exec/

InsideNow: GTM diagnostics and commercial due diligence for B2B SaaS. insidenow.io

]]> Mike Tumalty Buzzsprout-19485867 Tue, 14 Jul 2026 07:00:00 +0100 2929 1 7 full false The BDR Skill Most AEs Abandon | Andy Bailer, Director Strategic Accounts at Tanium The BDR Skill Most AEs Abandon | Andy Bailer, Director Strategic Accounts at Tanium Andy Bailer started as employee number 1,200 at ServiceNow in 2012, just after the IPO. He spent 11 years inside the business, 44 or 45 quarters, as Mike points out, moving through BDR, BDR management, partners and alliances, inside sales, and solution sales before leaving for CDW and eventually Atlassian. He is now Director of Strategic Accounts at Tanium, covering enterprise cybersecurity in the Northeast US.

This conversation covers the full arc: what a decade-plus inside one of the world's fastest-growing enterprise software companies actually teaches you, why the BDR skillset never leaves the best sellers even when they are running seven-figure accounts, and what enterprise buyers in cybersecurity are actually thinking when they go quiet on you.

What's covered:

  • Why staying at one company through three distinct growth phases gives you something job-hopping cannot
  • The hardest career transition Andy made — and why it was IC to manager, not any of the others
  • What strategic account management actually means at Tanium versus what the title implies
  • How CISOs buy: not on fear, but on trust and proof
  • Why silence from a buyer is not progress — and what to do about it
  • Multi-threading as a discipline, not a tactic
  • The BDR habit Andy still uses every Monday morning, 12 years on
  • Pipeline coverage as a vanity metric: why 3X unqualified beats 1.5X quality every time (it does not)
  • The Challenger Sale, the Enneagram, and what Andy learned about his own selling style


About Andy Bailer:

Andy Bailer is Director of Strategic Accounts at Tanium, where he covers enterprise cybersecurity accounts across the Northeast US. He spent 11 years at ServiceNow across BDR, management, partners and alliances, inside sales, and solution sales roles, before positions at CDW and Atlassian. He is based in the US.

Links:
The Outside Seat website: theoutsideseat.com
InsideNow: insidenow.io
Andy Bailer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewbailer/

The Outside Seat is a B2B revenue leadership podcast hosted by Mike Tumalty. New episodes every week.

Episode 6 is supported by Flourish, an early-career B2B sales recruitment and training business. If you are hiring sales talent, look at what they do: https://info.helloflourish.com/hire-a-sales-exec/

InsideNow: GTM diagnostics and commercial due diligence for B2B SaaS. insidenow.io

]]> Andy Bailer started as employee number 1,200 at ServiceNow in 2012, just after the IPO. He spent 11 years inside the business, 44 or 45 quarters, as Mike points out, moving through BDR, BDR management, partners and alliances, inside sales, and solution sales before leaving for CDW and eventually Atlassian. He is now Director of Strategic Accounts at Tanium, covering enterprise cybersecurity in the Northeast US.

This conversation covers the full arc: what a decade-plus inside one of the world's fastest-growing enterprise software companies actually teaches you, why the BDR skillset never leaves the best sellers even when they are running seven-figure accounts, and what enterprise buyers in cybersecurity are actually thinking when they go quiet on you.

What's covered:

  • Why staying at one company through three distinct growth phases gives you something job-hopping cannot
  • The hardest career transition Andy made — and why it was IC to manager, not any of the others
  • What strategic account management actually means at Tanium versus what the title implies
  • How CISOs buy: not on fear, but on trust and proof
  • Why silence from a buyer is not progress — and what to do about it
  • Multi-threading as a discipline, not a tactic
  • The BDR habit Andy still uses every Monday morning, 12 years on
  • Pipeline coverage as a vanity metric: why 3X unqualified beats 1.5X quality every time (it does not)
  • The Challenger Sale, the Enneagram, and what Andy learned about his own selling style


About Andy Bailer:

Andy Bailer is Director of Strategic Accounts at Tanium, where he covers enterprise cybersecurity accounts across the Northeast US. He spent 11 years at ServiceNow across BDR, management, partners and alliances, inside sales, and solution sales roles, before positions at CDW and Atlassian. He is based in the US.

Links:
The Outside Seat website: theoutsideseat.com
InsideNow: insidenow.io
Andy Bailer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewbailer/

The Outside Seat is a B2B revenue leadership podcast hosted by Mike Tumalty. New episodes every week.

Episode 6 is supported by Flourish, an early-career B2B sales recruitment and training business. If you are hiring sales talent, look at what they do: https://info.helloflourish.com/hire-a-sales-exec/

InsideNow: GTM diagnostics and commercial due diligence for B2B SaaS. insidenow.io

]]> Mike Tumalty Buzzsprout-19443981 Tue, 07 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0100 2624 1 6 full true RevOps needs a C-suite seat. Here's why | Nicholas Gollop RevOps needs a C-suite seat. Here's why | Nicholas Gollop Nicholas Gollop has led Revenue Operations inside some of the fastest-moving SaaS businesses in Europe. In this episode of The Outside Seat, he makes the case that RevOps is the most important function in a commercial organisation and the one that most businesses build last, staff wrong, and understand least.

What's covered in this episode:

  • Why the goal of great RevOps is not to be noticed, and why Nicholas calls that a bit sad
  • Why RevOps is not a reporting line, a system admin function, or a dumping ground, and what it actually is
  • Why AI will not make bad data good data, and what responsible AI adoption in a GTM context actually requires
  • The difference between AI as a wrapper and AI as a build tool, and why it matters
  • Why Revenue Operations might need its own seat at the C-suite table, and why COO and CFO are both the wrong answer
  • How to build a RevOps function in the right order in a 30 million ARR SaaS business
  • Nicholas's book, Design to Scale, and the GTM Architecture resource he recommends to anyone getting into the function

About Nicholas Gollop

Nicholas Gollop is a Business and Revenue Operations leader focused on responsible AI-first operating infrastructure for SaaS businesses. He is the author of Design to Scale, available at revopsondemand.com. He brings a cross-functional view of how modern commercial organisations are built and run, spanning financial governance, GTM execution, systems architecture, and advisory work.

Links

Nicholas Gollop on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasgollop/
Design to Scale (Nicholas's book): revopsondemand.com
InsideNow: insidenow.io
The Outside Seat: theoutsideseat.com

Episode 5 is supported by Flourish, an early-career B2B sales recruitment and training business. If you are hiring sales talent, look at what they do: https://info.helloflourish.com/hire-a-sales-exec/

InsideNow: GTM diagnostics and commercial due diligence for B2B SaaS. http://insidenow.io

#TheOutsideSeat #RevenueOperations #GTM #RevOps #B2BSaaS

]]> Nicholas Gollop has led Revenue Operations inside some of the fastest-moving SaaS businesses in Europe. In this episode of The Outside Seat, he makes the case that RevOps is the most important function in a commercial organisation and the one that most businesses build last, staff wrong, and understand least.

What's covered in this episode:

  • Why the goal of great RevOps is not to be noticed, and why Nicholas calls that a bit sad
  • Why RevOps is not a reporting line, a system admin function, or a dumping ground, and what it actually is
  • Why AI will not make bad data good data, and what responsible AI adoption in a GTM context actually requires
  • The difference between AI as a wrapper and AI as a build tool, and why it matters
  • Why Revenue Operations might need its own seat at the C-suite table, and why COO and CFO are both the wrong answer
  • How to build a RevOps function in the right order in a 30 million ARR SaaS business
  • Nicholas's book, Design to Scale, and the GTM Architecture resource he recommends to anyone getting into the function

About Nicholas Gollop

Nicholas Gollop is a Business and Revenue Operations leader focused on responsible AI-first operating infrastructure for SaaS businesses. He is the author of Design to Scale, available at revopsondemand.com. He brings a cross-functional view of how modern commercial organisations are built and run, spanning financial governance, GTM execution, systems architecture, and advisory work.

Links

Nicholas Gollop on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasgollop/
Design to Scale (Nicholas's book): revopsondemand.com
InsideNow: insidenow.io
The Outside Seat: theoutsideseat.com

Episode 5 is supported by Flourish, an early-career B2B sales recruitment and training business. If you are hiring sales talent, look at what they do: https://info.helloflourish.com/hire-a-sales-exec/

InsideNow: GTM diagnostics and commercial due diligence for B2B SaaS. http://insidenow.io

#TheOutsideSeat #RevenueOperations #GTM #RevOps #B2BSaaS

]]> Mike Tumalty Buzzsprout-19418848 Tue, 30 Jun 2026 07:00:00 +0100 2809 1 5 full false What BDRs Know That Most AEs Forget | Carly Pledge, Head of Sales, Datamaran What BDRs Know That Most AEs Forget | Carly Pledge, Head of Sales, Datamaran Carly Pledge has led Sales Development and sales teams across CloudCall and Datamaran. In this conversation, she talks about what BDR culture actually teaches sales leaders, why the transition from top performer to manager is one of the most misunderstood moves in a commercial career, and how community can be one of the most powerful and most underused intelligence assets in a B2B sales motion.

What we cover:
- Why hustle culture in BDR teams produces skills that most AEs quietly discard — and why that is a mistake
- The transition from BDR to AE: what nobody tells you before you make it
- Psychological safety as the operating principle of high-performing sales cultures
- Building a sales motion in a market where the buyer's understanding of their own needs is continually evolving (Datamaran operates in sustainability data and ESG reporting)
- Why community is a commercial intelligence asset — and why most organisations listen too little and pitch too much inside theirs
- Rapid Fire: the tools, the myths, and the metric every revenue leader checks on a Monday morning

Carly also shares the most honest thing a sales leader can say: "I'm a better manager than I am a performer." It is worth hearing the argument she makes around it.

About Carly Pledge
Carly Pledge is Head of Sales at Datamaran, a sustainability intelligence platform. She previously led Business Development at CloudCall and has spent her career building and scaling commercial teams in B2B technology. She is a former colleague of Mike's from the CloudCall years.

Links:
The Outside Seat website: theoutsideseat.com
InsideNow: insidenow.io
Carly Pledge on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carly-pledge/
Steve Myers (My Sales Coach): https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevemyers0/
Jacqueline de Gernier (GWI): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquidegernier/

The Outside Seat is a B2B revenue leadership podcast hosted by Mike Tumalty. New episodes every week.

Episode 4 is supported by Flourish, an early-career B2B sales recruitment and training business. If you are hiring sales talent, look at what they do: https://info.helloflourish.com/hire-a-sales-exec/

InsideNow: GTM diagnostics and commercial due diligence for B2B SaaS. http://insidenow.io

]]> Carly Pledge has led Sales Development and sales teams across CloudCall and Datamaran. In this conversation, she talks about what BDR culture actually teaches sales leaders, why the transition from top performer to manager is one of the most misunderstood moves in a commercial career, and how community can be one of the most powerful and most underused intelligence assets in a B2B sales motion.

What we cover:
- Why hustle culture in BDR teams produces skills that most AEs quietly discard — and why that is a mistake
- The transition from BDR to AE: what nobody tells you before you make it
- Psychological safety as the operating principle of high-performing sales cultures
- Building a sales motion in a market where the buyer's understanding of their own needs is continually evolving (Datamaran operates in sustainability data and ESG reporting)
- Why community is a commercial intelligence asset — and why most organisations listen too little and pitch too much inside theirs
- Rapid Fire: the tools, the myths, and the metric every revenue leader checks on a Monday morning

Carly also shares the most honest thing a sales leader can say: "I'm a better manager than I am a performer." It is worth hearing the argument she makes around it.

About Carly Pledge
Carly Pledge is Head of Sales at Datamaran, a sustainability intelligence platform. She previously led Business Development at CloudCall and has spent her career building and scaling commercial teams in B2B technology. She is a former colleague of Mike's from the CloudCall years.

Links:
The Outside Seat website: theoutsideseat.com
InsideNow: insidenow.io
Carly Pledge on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carly-pledge/
Steve Myers (My Sales Coach): https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevemyers0/
Jacqueline de Gernier (GWI): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquidegernier/

The Outside Seat is a B2B revenue leadership podcast hosted by Mike Tumalty. New episodes every week.

Episode 4 is supported by Flourish, an early-career B2B sales recruitment and training business. If you are hiring sales talent, look at what they do: https://info.helloflourish.com/hire-a-sales-exec/

InsideNow: GTM diagnostics and commercial due diligence for B2B SaaS. http://insidenow.io

]]> Mike Tumalty Buzzsprout-19386161 Tue, 23 Jun 2026 07:00:00 +0100 2183 1 4 full false The Enterprise AI Buyer's Real Question in 2026 | Stephen Jenkins, Glean The Enterprise AI Buyer's Real Question in 2026 | Stephen Jenkins, Glean Stephen Jenkins is Regional VP at Glean, the enterprise AI knowledge platform that grew from $100m to $300m ARR in fifteen months. He covers everything outside the UK across the Nordics, Benelux, Southern Europe, and DACH, and co-founded Sales Heads, an invite-only community for senior sales leaders built around honesty and no bravado.

In this episode of The Outside Seat, Mike Tumalty and Stephen Jenkins cover what the enterprise AI buyer is actually asking in 2026, why Glean never brings the product into the first few conversations, what the Sales Heads Amsterdam roundtable revealed about AI and SDR engagement, and why Jim Collins' Good to Great still shapes how Stephen builds operating rhythms across twenty-plus markets.

What we cover:

  • The shift in the enterprise AI buyer question: from "what is AI?" to "how do I unlock value without creating risk?"
  • The blueprinting session: how Glean sells to non-technical buyers without leading with the product
  • Why cold calling is not dead and what the Amsterdam Sales Heads roundtable revealed about AI outreach
  • The dual perspective of selling AI while using AI to run the commercial operation
  • Structure brings freedom: operating rhythm as the constant across twenty-plus markets and cultures
  • Why Sales Heads was built: the loneliness of sales leadership and the silence problem
  • Good to Great, pipeline generation, and the desire to be great

About Stephen Jenkins:

Stephen Jenkins is Regional VP at Glean and co-founder of Sales Heads. His career spans ServiceNow, Jamf, Miro, and Glean. He is based in the Netherlands.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevejenkins14/

Episode 3 is supported by Flourish, an early-career B2B sales recruitment and training business. If you are hiring sales talent, look at what they do: https://info.helloflourish.com/hire-a...

The Outside Seat is a B2B revenue leadership podcast hosted by Mike Tumalty. New episodes every week.

InsideNow: GTM diagnostics and commercial due diligence for B2B SaaS. insidenow.io

]]> Stephen Jenkins is Regional VP at Glean, the enterprise AI knowledge platform that grew from $100m to $300m ARR in fifteen months. He covers everything outside the UK across the Nordics, Benelux, Southern Europe, and DACH, and co-founded Sales Heads, an invite-only community for senior sales leaders built around honesty and no bravado.

In this episode of The Outside Seat, Mike Tumalty and Stephen Jenkins cover what the enterprise AI buyer is actually asking in 2026, why Glean never brings the product into the first few conversations, what the Sales Heads Amsterdam roundtable revealed about AI and SDR engagement, and why Jim Collins' Good to Great still shapes how Stephen builds operating rhythms across twenty-plus markets.

What we cover:

  • The shift in the enterprise AI buyer question: from "what is AI?" to "how do I unlock value without creating risk?"
  • The blueprinting session: how Glean sells to non-technical buyers without leading with the product
  • Why cold calling is not dead and what the Amsterdam Sales Heads roundtable revealed about AI outreach
  • The dual perspective of selling AI while using AI to run the commercial operation
  • Structure brings freedom: operating rhythm as the constant across twenty-plus markets and cultures
  • Why Sales Heads was built: the loneliness of sales leadership and the silence problem
  • Good to Great, pipeline generation, and the desire to be great

About Stephen Jenkins:

Stephen Jenkins is Regional VP at Glean and co-founder of Sales Heads. His career spans ServiceNow, Jamf, Miro, and Glean. He is based in the Netherlands.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevejenkins14/

Episode 3 is supported by Flourish, an early-career B2B sales recruitment and training business. If you are hiring sales talent, look at what they do: https://info.helloflourish.com/hire-a...

The Outside Seat is a B2B revenue leadership podcast hosted by Mike Tumalty. New episodes every week.

InsideNow: GTM diagnostics and commercial due diligence for B2B SaaS. insidenow.io

]]> Mike Tumalty Buzzsprout-19343442 Tue, 16 Jun 2026 07:00:00 +0100 2663 1 3 full false Partnerships Is Not a Problem to Fix. It Is an Operating Motion | Jim Mirusaca, RainFocus Partnerships Is Not a Problem to Fix. It Is an Operating Motion | Jim Mirusaca, RainFocus Jim Misuraca has won Adobe Partner of the Year twice. He has spent 20 years building partner programmes across Fortune 500 and 10-person startups, mostly in MarTech, data and ad tech. In this episode he sits down with Mike Tumalty to talk about what genuinely separates the partnerships organisations that generate revenue from the ones that produce activity reports.

This is a conversation about the structural reasons partnerships is still misunderstood inside most B2B technology businesses, why the friction between direct sales and indirect motions is healthy when it is managed properly, and what hiring for a partner role actually requires when the traditional eight-years-in-vertical screen produces the wrong outcome. Jim is candid about where partnerships sits on the org chart, why it depends entirely on the type of partner you are, and what AI is and is not changing for the function right now.
What is covered:

  • Why winning Partner of the Year twice comes down to executive sponsorship, product commitment and vertical focus, not relationships alone
  • The structural reason most companies underfund partnerships and treat it as a problem to fix rather than an operating motion
  • Where partnerships should sit on the org chart and why the answer depends on whether you are SI, services or ISV
  • The friction between direct sellers and partner motions, and why the best reps understand pie expansion versus margin erosion
  • Hiring for partnerships: the figured-it-out gene, why traditional vertical-experience screens get it wrong
  • How AI is changing partner work today (efficiency) and where it has not arrived yet (the core motion)
  • The EMEA versus North America buyer dynamic: consensus building versus strong-voice decision making
  • Crossbeam as the single most useful tool in a partner leader's stack

About the guest:
Jim Misuraca is a strategic partnerships and corporate development leader with two Adobe Partner of the Year awards to his name. He has operated across the MarTech, data and ad tech space for 20 years, working with companies from Fortune 500 down to 10-person startups. He is currently based in Phoenix, Arizona.

About the host:
Mike Tumalty is the founder of InsideNow, a GTM diagnostic and commercial due diligence consultancy. He has 25 years of B2B SaaS experience across ServiceNow, Lokalise, Decibel/Medallia, and Panaya.

Episode 2 is supported by Flourish, an early-career B2B sales recruitment and training business. If you are hiring sales talent, look at what they do: https://info.helloflourish.com/hire-a...

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. New episodes every Tuesday.
Connect with Jim Mirusaca: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrmisuraca/
Connect with Mike Tumalty: linkedin.com/in/miketumalty
Follow The Outside Seat: linkedin.com/company/theoutsideseat

The Outside Seat is produced by InsideNow. Find more at insidenow.co.uk

]]> Jim Misuraca has won Adobe Partner of the Year twice. He has spent 20 years building partner programmes across Fortune 500 and 10-person startups, mostly in MarTech, data and ad tech. In this episode he sits down with Mike Tumalty to talk about what genuinely separates the partnerships organisations that generate revenue from the ones that produce activity reports.

This is a conversation about the structural reasons partnerships is still misunderstood inside most B2B technology businesses, why the friction between direct sales and indirect motions is healthy when it is managed properly, and what hiring for a partner role actually requires when the traditional eight-years-in-vertical screen produces the wrong outcome. Jim is candid about where partnerships sits on the org chart, why it depends entirely on the type of partner you are, and what AI is and is not changing for the function right now.
What is covered:

  • Why winning Partner of the Year twice comes down to executive sponsorship, product commitment and vertical focus, not relationships alone
  • The structural reason most companies underfund partnerships and treat it as a problem to fix rather than an operating motion
  • Where partnerships should sit on the org chart and why the answer depends on whether you are SI, services or ISV
  • The friction between direct sellers and partner motions, and why the best reps understand pie expansion versus margin erosion
  • Hiring for partnerships: the figured-it-out gene, why traditional vertical-experience screens get it wrong
  • How AI is changing partner work today (efficiency) and where it has not arrived yet (the core motion)
  • The EMEA versus North America buyer dynamic: consensus building versus strong-voice decision making
  • Crossbeam as the single most useful tool in a partner leader's stack

About the guest:
Jim Misuraca is a strategic partnerships and corporate development leader with two Adobe Partner of the Year awards to his name. He has operated across the MarTech, data and ad tech space for 20 years, working with companies from Fortune 500 down to 10-person startups. He is currently based in Phoenix, Arizona.

About the host:
Mike Tumalty is the founder of InsideNow, a GTM diagnostic and commercial due diligence consultancy. He has 25 years of B2B SaaS experience across ServiceNow, Lokalise, Decibel/Medallia, and Panaya.

Episode 2 is supported by Flourish, an early-career B2B sales recruitment and training business. If you are hiring sales talent, look at what they do: https://info.helloflourish.com/hire-a...

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. New episodes every Tuesday.
Connect with Jim Mirusaca: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrmisuraca/
Connect with Mike Tumalty: linkedin.com/in/miketumalty
Follow The Outside Seat: linkedin.com/company/theoutsideseat

The Outside Seat is produced by InsideNow. Find more at insidenow.co.uk

]]> Mike Tumalty Buzzsprout-19318520 Tue, 09 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0100 2088 1 2 full false Episode 1: Why Most Sales Training Fails | James Barton, Mentor Group Episode 1: Why Most Sales Training Fails | James Barton, Mentor Group In the first episode of The Outside Seat, James Barton, Chief Solutions Officer at Mentor Group and co-author of Infinite Selling, joins Mike Tumalty to unpack why most sales training fails within 90 days, what genuinely sustainable selling looks like, and where AI is changing GTM versus where it is being oversold.

James brings a rare perspective. He sits inside more revenue organisations than most CROs will see in a career, designing the systems that turn training into measurable commercial outcomes. This conversation goes deep on enablement architecture, the gap between what clients ask for and what they actually need, the buyer journey as map rather than process, and the BDR redundancy question that every revenue leader is going to have to answer in the next 18 months.

What you will hear:

Why most sales training evaporates within 90 days The systems thinker's view of GTM transformation Buyer journey as map, not process Where AI genuinely augments selling, and where it is being oversold Why the BDR function is the most at-risk role in B2B sales today The Rapid Fire round: tools, myths, metrics, hiring stories, and the most underrated people in James's network

About James Barton:

James is Chief Solutions Officer at Mentor Group, a global sales performance consultancy that helps revenue teams turn sales training into sustainable selling and predictable growth. He is the co-author of Infinite Selling and one of the most credible voices on the architecture of commercial transformation.

About The Outside Seat:

The Outside Seat is a B2B revenue leadership podcast hosted by Mike Tumalty, founder of InsideNow. Every episode features an unfiltered conversation with the people who run the commercial engine in B2B technology. No recycled frameworks. No sanitised answers. Practitioner conversations from people who have been in the room.

New episodes every Tuesday 

Episode 1 is supported by Flourish, an early-career B2B sales recruitment and training business. If you are hiring sales talent, find out more at: https://info.helloflourish.com/hire-a-sales-exec/

Connect with James Barton on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jamesabarton
Connect with Mike Tumalty on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/miketumalty 
Visit The Outside Seat: theoutsideseat.com 
Visit InsideNow: insidenow.co.uk

The Outside Seat is produced by InsideNow.

]]> In the first episode of The Outside Seat, James Barton, Chief Solutions Officer at Mentor Group and co-author of Infinite Selling, joins Mike Tumalty to unpack why most sales training fails within 90 days, what genuinely sustainable selling looks like, and where AI is changing GTM versus where it is being oversold.

James brings a rare perspective. He sits inside more revenue organisations than most CROs will see in a career, designing the systems that turn training into measurable commercial outcomes. This conversation goes deep on enablement architecture, the gap between what clients ask for and what they actually need, the buyer journey as map rather than process, and the BDR redundancy question that every revenue leader is going to have to answer in the next 18 months.

What you will hear:

Why most sales training evaporates within 90 days The systems thinker's view of GTM transformation Buyer journey as map, not process Where AI genuinely augments selling, and where it is being oversold Why the BDR function is the most at-risk role in B2B sales today The Rapid Fire round: tools, myths, metrics, hiring stories, and the most underrated people in James's network

About James Barton:

James is Chief Solutions Officer at Mentor Group, a global sales performance consultancy that helps revenue teams turn sales training into sustainable selling and predictable growth. He is the co-author of Infinite Selling and one of the most credible voices on the architecture of commercial transformation.

About The Outside Seat:

The Outside Seat is a B2B revenue leadership podcast hosted by Mike Tumalty, founder of InsideNow. Every episode features an unfiltered conversation with the people who run the commercial engine in B2B technology. No recycled frameworks. No sanitised answers. Practitioner conversations from people who have been in the room.

New episodes every Tuesday 

Episode 1 is supported by Flourish, an early-career B2B sales recruitment and training business. If you are hiring sales talent, find out more at: https://info.helloflourish.com/hire-a-sales-exec/

Connect with James Barton on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jamesabarton
Connect with Mike Tumalty on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/miketumalty 
Visit The Outside Seat: theoutsideseat.com 
Visit InsideNow: insidenow.co.uk

The Outside Seat is produced by InsideNow.

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